Willie Nelson Selected for Library of Congress Honor

Nelson will receive the Gershwin Prize in November in Washington, D.C., where he will be celebrated with a series of events honoring his career. Previous recipients of the Gershwin Prize include Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Carole King, and the songwriting duo Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

Willie Nelson has landed a prestigious honour from the USA Library of Congress in recognition of his awesome music career. “Like America itself, he has absorbed and assimilated diverse stylistic influences into his stories and songs”.

James added that the Texas native helped make country one of the most beloved forms of American artistic expression.

Willie Nelson is still raking in the accolades.

“It is an honor to be the next recipient of the Gershwin Prize”. In 2013, Nelson released “Let’s Face The Music and Dance”, an album of pop-country repertoire classics performed with patented ease by Nelson and Family-his long-time touring and recording ensemble-and “To All The Girls…”, which features 18 duets with music’s top female singers.

The Gershwin Prize is named after brothers George and Ira Gershwin, who teamed up during the 20th century to pen some of the American Songbook’s most enduring standards. Nelson has written a bevy of groundbreaking songs as well, including the mega-hit “Crazy” that catapulted Patsy Cline to stardom in 1961 per The Boot.

Nelson has recorded 70 studio albums, almost a dozen live albums, and more than 40 compilations since his first 1962 first album, “And Then I Wrote”.

The Gershwin prize was most recently awarded to Billy Joel, as previously reported by the Inquisitr. In the last five years alone, he has delivered 10 new releases and published a New York Times best-selling book.

The library announced the honor Thursday, citing Nelson’s 60 successful years in music.

[Photo by Gabriel Olsen/Getty Images].